University of St Andrews professors honoured by British Academy

Tuesday 25 July 2017

St Andrews Professors Sir Hew Strachan (right), of the School of International Relations, and Nicholas Roe (left), of the School of English, have achieved the rare distinction of being elected Fellows of the British Academy.

Professors Strachan and Roe are among 66 new Fellows named by the Academy in recognition of their world-leading research in the humanities and social sciences.

This year’s new Fellows are experts in subjects ranging from feminist theory to the economic development of Africa; medieval history to Indian philosophy and face perception.

Professor Sir Hew Strachan is an authority in military history whose work focuses on 19th and 20th century European military history, the First World War and modern strategic studies. He is a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum and a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner, and serves on both the United Kingdom’s and Scotland’s national advisory panels for the centenary of the First World War.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, was Regius Professor of the History of War at Oxford before coming to St Andrews and is also a Fellow of All Souls College.

On receiving his Fellowship of the British Academy Sir Hew said: "It is a great honour to be elected to the British Academy. As a historian of the First World War, I am particularly gratified that this should have happened as we mark the war's centenary. The commemoration has been a marvellous opportunity for public engagement and for developing understanding both of this war and of armed conflict more generally.”

Professor Nicholas Roe is the author of critically acclaimed biographies and studies including John Keats: A new Life, Fiery Heart: The First Life of Leigh Hunt and John Keats and the Culture of Dissent. A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Honorary Fellow of the English Association, his main area of interest is romantic literature and culture.

Professor Roe commented: “I feel delighted and honoured to have been elected to the Fellowship, and look forward to contributing to the British Academy’s support for the arts and social sciences in the UK and beyond.”

St Andrews Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Mapstone said the University was exceptionally proud that the achievements of these two colleagues had been recognised by the Academy.

“Hew’s commitment to enhancing cultural understanding of the First World War and the changing face of the British Army has been remarkably successful and sustained, and continues to great effect at St Andrews, where he is also giving leadership to the Institute for the Study of War and Strategy,” she said.

“Nicholas Roe’s work on romanticism has spanned a range of key poets and thinkers, including Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge, and his work is both apparently effortlessly scholarly and gloriously readable.”